hi CT campers,looking to buy CT to suit husband wife team with three children, to do short trips in vic, but have been stumped before we have even started, can anyone help with advice?oztrail tents..any good? were looking at oztrail camper 12, we have a choice of last years canvas or this years ripstop?ripstop is it any better?? worth the money or stick to the classic canvas?thanks in advance

Hi,Go with the proper canvas. It is much better than the ripstop stuff. The ripstop is often made in China and is not usually as good as aussie made canvas. Also, all the ripstop cts I have seen seem to have stretched and the roof has gone out of shape and sagged. Not a good look when it's raining.The oztrail canvas is chinese made but to aussie specs so it is better than ripstop but not quite as good as proper aussie canvas. I have seen it and it looks good for the happy medium if you can't get the real stuff. I nearly bought an oztrail camper but in the end found a great secondhand aussie made ct.

From what you have written, do I assume that oztrail are changing their canvas? Definitely go with last year's real canvas.Happy camping!

Think I have to agree (a little bit...lol)...with Sienna on this one.....''Sorta''.We had our 1st camp in our camper trailer with Sienna & Poodle where we had a fair dollop of rain over the weekend and we wern't to happy with our ripstop roofs performance.(Pools of rain on the roof) The stretching was caused by (in my opinion)....a bad design from the manufacturer CIG.not a bad product.I wrote to them on our return and explained what had happened and how I thought it could be improved.They agreed and sent me at 'no charge' extra supports for the annex roof which I have tried and I'm quite happy this won't happen again.....I have also reprayed the roof area with a waterproof product just to make sure.....Soon as this dam rain stops and we can get out on my days off we will know the answer (sounds dumb not wanting rain to test it,,,ha ha).....To the other owners of these camper trailers....look serious at getting more roof stays BEFORE you go camping.....prevention is better than a cure.

Life is not about how hard you can hit, but how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.

We own a CUB Spacematic CT, 2005 build, owned by us since new, the canvas is 100% Australian, so says the label that's attached to same.It has an Annex with three walls added. Spreader bars from ct to annex poles keep things apart, and velcro tape around said spreader bars to ensure canvas stays where it's meant to stay.All sounds good hey ? Well to cut long story short, despite all the above, rain water still manages to pool on the annex roof.Then the weight of same, drags everything totaly out of kilter causing further problems.Fortunately, we woke up to the problem during the day, and were able to regularly empty the pools, Gawd knows what would happen with a heavy downpour during the night.Point is though, it doesn't matter where you canvas is made, or by whom in such cases, it's all about design and manufacture.